


Nameless

by Eggling



Series: daemon au [8]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen, daemon AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 03:05:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19039885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: The Doctor and Jamie meet a girl with a nameless daemon.





	Nameless

“You know, Zoe...” The Doctor laced his fingers together, setting his hands in his lap and smiling up at the girl. “Seeing as we’re to be – ah – kept waiting here – you haven’t introduced us to your daemon.”

Jamie snapped his head around to face Zoe, startled by the Doctor’s words. Even after following her around the space station, he had not realised that Zoe’s daemon was missing. Teárlag was clinging to his shoulder, her claws digging into his chest, and yet he had not even thought to look for another person’s daemon. Had he really been travelling with the Doctor for so long, that people without daemons seemed normal to him? He had grown used to Siannu’s form-changing and tendency to wander, but if Zoe had no daemon at all and he had failed to notice…

To his relief, she gave the Doctor a quizzical look, but pulled a small case out of her pocket, opening the lid to reveal a delicate bee. “You _are_ funny,” she said, shaking her head. “Wanting to be _introduced_ to him.”

The Doctor’s lips parted a little, and he gazed down at Zoe’s bee-daemon in wonder. Siannu had been settled on his shoulder in bird form, but they rose into the air at the sight of Zoe’s daemon, changing into a great, graceful butterfly and approaching the other daemon curiously. They shifted back after a moment, ruffling and rearranging their feathers. “I don’t think I like being an insect,” they said, rather tactlessly. “It’s much too quiet. Too hard to talk.”

“Your – your daemon.” Zoe took a step backwards, snapping the lid of her daemon’s case shut protectively. “She… _changed_ , she – she shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“I’m not a _she_ ,” Siannu put in frustratedly.

“And it’s rather simple physics, really,” the Doctor added. He waved his hand around the room. “Twenty-first century. You understand what daemons _are_ , of course.”

“Well – yes, of course we do -”

“Then you should understand that it’s rather simple to keep them unsettled.”

Zoe’s mouth opened and closed as she stared between the Doctor and Siannu, clearly struggling to know what to say. “In _theory_ , it ought to be possible,” she said at last. “But not in practice. And it would be so impractical. People could hide their work suitability so easily.”

“Work suitability.” The Doctor shook his head, his lips pursed disapprovingly. “Now, you’ve had something of an introduction to Siannu here. How about we meet your daemon, hm?”

Zoe laughed incredulously. “You’re the strangest people I’ve ever met.”

“You’re takin’ it well, lassie,” Jamie said, grinning. “When we first saw Siannu change, Teárlag thought the Doctor must’ve been some sort of witch.”

“I’m not surprised,” Zoe said haughtily. “But witches don’t exist, I’d hardly think -”

“Of course they do,” the Doctor put in mildly. “I know plenty of witches.”

Zoe glared at them, crossing her arms across her chest. “Anyway, I wasn’t talking about your daemon. I was talking about how keen you seem to be to meet mine.”

“Well, it’s only polite.”

Jamie nudged the Doctor’s arm. “People dinnae usually talk tae insect daemons,” he said quietly. “Most of them find it a wee bit alarming. We dinnae mind, though,” he added to Zoe. “He doesnae have to be shy.”

“There’s no need to talk to daemons,” Zoe insisted. “No matter what their form is. It’s nothing to do with him being an insect.”

The Doctor snapped his head up to frown at Zoe. His expression was as intense and outraged as Jamie had ever seen it, and he stepped back a little, bracing himself for the butting of heads that usually followed. “No need to talk to daemons?” he echoed. “Whoever taught you that?”

Zoe shrugged. “They’re not there to be talked to.”

“Doesn’t he get lonely?” Jamie asked. The scorching look Zoe gave him was enough to make him drop the subject hastily. “What’s his name?”

Zoe was still looking at him as if he was stupid, but he was too caught up in his surprise and disbelief to care. “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “Apis. Officially he’s _Apis mellifera-459_.”

“Your daemon’s name is a _number_?” Jamie exclaimed.

“He wasn’t named until after he settled?” the Doctor added. “Whatever did you call him before?”

“He didn’t need a name,” Zoe said, laughing. “He’s my daemon. That would be like – naming your clothes.”

“Zoe -” The Doctor sat forward, leaning his elbows on the bed and propping his chin up on his hands. “What do you think daemons are _for_?”

“For showing others who you are.” The answer came so quickly and with so little hesitation that Jamie was sure it had been drilled into her by someone. “Apis shows that I work hard, I can contribute to a group, and I know my place in a hierarchy.” She was practically glowing with pride at this, and Jamie felt vaguely sickened. “I’d never have been given this job without him.”

“Your daemon’s no’ your job.” Teárlag sprang into Jamie’s arms as he spoke. “Trust me, we know.”

Zoe opened her mouth to argue, but the Doctor cut in. “He’s quite right, you know, Zoe. You’re more than your daemon’s form – I’m, ah, quite confident that you would have been placed here without him. And his form says more about you than how good you are at your job.”

To Jamie’s surprise, Zoe laughed again, but with more genuine amusement than derision. “You sound like Gemma,” she said. “When I first arrived here.” She leant forwards, a spark of interest in her eyes. When she spoke, it was hushed, as if she was worried about being overheard. “You’re a scientist. Do you really think there’s more to daemons than this?”

Her voice contained a glimmer of hopefulness that made Jamie pause to shove away his irritation with her teasing. “We know there is,” he said gently.

“There’s some doubt in your mind, isn’t there?” the Doctor said. “Just at the back of your mind, telling you that the way you’ve been taught to think about daemons is wrong.”

Zoe’s brow furrowed at the Doctor’s words. She toyed with the daemon-case in her hand, and for a moment, Jamie wondered if they had successfully changed her mind. Surely neither she nor her daemon wanted to keep living in silence like this, he thought. The wrongness that she had clearly learnt by rote seemed so unnatural to him, and he wondered that she had not already outright rejected it. The nature of daemons felt like such a simple business – so why did she look so lost?

Before Zoe could form any sort of answer, a spine-chilling shriek split the air around them, and all thoughts of daemons and philosophies were driven from their minds.


End file.
